stress

Our minds are made to handle a lot of stress – we’re built to be able to withstand stressful situations. However, when we come under a lot of stress on a constant basis, that’s when problems can arise. The fact is that study after study has shown that high levels of stress on a constant basis, such as from a job that comes with a lot of pressure, or an upsetting situation at home, can make mental health problems more likely. There is a link between stress and mental health, but it’s not exactly clear cut – there are a lot of ins and outs to it. Want to learn more about the link between excessive stress and mental health problems like OCD, anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia? Then read on, as all is about to be revealed.

Does stress automatically lead to mental health problems?

Despite the fact that stress can, in some instances, cause mental health problems, it’s important to realize that it doesn’t automatically cause them. In some instances, stress can be a contributing factor to why a person develops an anxiety disorder, for instance, but that doesn’t mean high levels of stress will always lead to mental health problems. The fact is that being under pressure is a normal part of life – it can drive us to work harder, be more productive, and reach our goals. Problems arise when you begin to feel overwhelmed by stress.

Is stress the only factor linked to mental health issues?

Stress isn’t the only cause linked to mental health problems. Most conditions, such as schizophrenia, are also linked to genetics, brain structure, neurotransmitters, and triggers, one of which is stress, but there are also others like drugs and alcohol, for instance. A lot of mental health problems also have different levels, so for instance, there are different types of schizophrenia, ranging from mild to severe. If someone becomes withdrawn, doesn’t want to socialize, and struggles with the day to day aspects of lift, but isn’t having delusions, then it may be mild schizophrenia, instead of a more severe level of this condition. Sometimes, more mild version of a condition are linked to stress, whereas more severe ones are caused by other factors, although this isn’t always the case.

Can stress make existing mental health problems worse?

Studies have shown that stress can excavate existing mental health problems, making them worse. For instance, say you suffer from depression, studies have shown that when your stress levels are high thanks to a hectic job, family problems, money worries, or something else, it can make your depression worse. The same applies to other mental health problems, from OCD and anxiety to bipolar disorder. So if you suffer from an existing mental health problem, it’s important to keep your stress levels to a minimum by having an outlet for stress such as jogging, practicing yoga, or doing a calming activity like reading, adult coloring, or completing brain puzzles.

There is a link between stress and mental health, but it’s not a clear-cut one and is tends to differ from person to person.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

Everyone knows running is a great way to get into shape. It’s not a secret! But do you know that running can also benefit your mind? Have you ever wondered how running influences your brains? If you haven’t now it’s the time to realize the benefits of running for your body and mind.

So, let’s start… How does running influence your body and brain?

Stimulate Memory and Learning System

People who prefer to sit on the sofa instead of morning run can’t show off a good memory and learning as their brains are slowly dying away. Fit people and those who like exercising have a better ability to concentrate, solve different memory test better and combine multiple tasks easier.

Reduce Stress, Anxiety and Help with Depression

Stop Deterioration of Brains with Age

With aging, the human brain can begin to deteriorate but running prevents or reverses this process as it affects brain chemicals. Running boosts the production of new nerve cells and blood vessels within the brain that’s why the runners’ brains have better metabolic efficiency and getting old later than non-athletes’.

Help to Burn Calories

Running is considered as one of the most effective ways to lose weight and keep in shape. It is a unique type of exercise as you can burn calories not only when you work out but also and after training. Such effect is called “afterburn”.

Prevent Disease

Research shows that running is a nice way to increase your overall level of health and it means that running helps to reduce or prevent the risk of disease. While you’re running the level of good cholesterol in your blood raises. As a result, the lung function of your body increases, you enhance your immune system and the risk of developing blood clots becomes lower.

Make Your Heart Stronger

One more useful characteristic of running is the ability to take care of your heart health. Regular runs are the best prevention of heart disease. Running has the magic impact to your health. It can reduce the risk of heart attack, lower resting heart rate and reduce blood pressure.

Strengthen Your Bones

Running also helps to strengthen your bone health. If somebody says that running damages your bones don’t trust this person. The repeated impact on your bones and joints during your regular runs makes to build thick calcium layers in the bones and they gradually get stronger.

Prolong Your Life

It is no big secret that people who exercise at least 30 minutes, five times a week live longer than those who lead passive lifestyle. When you start running you give up bad habits, you promote your health and don’t allow your brain to age. Of course, all this helps you to extend your life.

Here you’ve read about the best benefits of running. As you see running can be considered as a universal workout as it useful both for your physical and mental health. How has running improved your body and mind? Please, share your thoughts with us.

In order to take care of our health and wellbeing overall; we need to look at several different aspects of our life. It can all be very well hitting the gym to do some weights or taking yourself out for a run every day. But there are other aspects to think about with our health too. One aspect is nutrition. It can be easy to think about going out to exercise, but it is no good if then you just go back home and eat an entire chocolate cake. You might look fit on the outside, but it can mean that you’re unhealthy on the inside. But the main point that I’m going to touch on today is mental wellbeing and stress. The two can be very closely related, so it is important to understand, and then look at ways to cope.

Find Your Trigger

If you feel like you are constantly battling with your stress levels, then it is time to think about what your triggers are. Is it that you feel stressed out by your family situation or with all of the work you have to do? Combined with the normal stresses of everyday life, it could become too much for you. If you can identify what your trigger is, then you look at how to eliminate that from your life. If you feel like you never have time to yourself after a busy day at work, and then you come home to a messy home with lots of chores to do; it can overwhelm. An example of how to cope in this case could be to arrange a babysitter on certain days if needed, so that you can have some time alone or to exercise. It could be that you could get a cleaner; so at least the stress of chores on top of a busy schedule is eliminated.

Find Healthy Ways To Cope

As stress and mental health are so closely linked; it is important to look at how to cope with things that won’t make either of those things worse. It can be easy to just get into a downward spiral, perhaps self-medicating with alcohol or even just food. The issue with either is that they can both have such a detrimental effect on your stress and mental health; as well as physical health. If you have found that this kind of self-medicating has become a problem for you, then you might need to look into alcohol rehab with good reputations to get yourself back on track. Looking for healthier ways to cope is the best to avoid this; so that you can improve and help yourself; not make things worse. It could be exercise or it could be meditation. It might just be reading a book. Just find something that will help, rather than hinder.

Make an Action Plan

You have to sit down and make a plan of action when it comes to your stress levels and mental health. Think about situations that you need to avoid, or what to do if you find yourself getting really stressed out. When you plan ahead, it makes a massive difference.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

A lot of people are so focused on getting their body fit and healthy that they forget all about their mind. Your mind needs, training, exercise and health treatment just as much as your body. In fact, did you know that a lot of experts recommend that everyone goes to see a mental health professional at some point in their life? We’ll look at why that is a little further down, but this clearly shows the importance of thinking about your mental health. So, how can you look after your mind and what benefits will this bring?

Brain Exercises

You should avoid binge watching TV if you can, no matter how tempting it might be. Instead, watch TV in short bursts every so often and spend more time reading and solving puzzles. Crosswords are great brain exercises that really get those electrons firing. That’s exactly what you need to keep your mind in tip-top shape. If you do this, you can even reduce the chances of developing problems such as Alzheimer’s later in life. Many people with the early signs of Alzheimer’s have discovered that brain teasers slow down the progression of the disease. You can read more about this on https://alzheimers.org.uk/.

Therapeutic Treatment

Therapy is about tackling the issues that are causing you stress and anxiety. A lot of OT companies now work with big business to make sure that all employees are taken care of in this aspect, and that’s hardly surprising. Most of the stress that we face in life is due to our career and our job responsibilities. If you have a look at a site such as http://theotpractice.co.uk/, you’ll see that you can easily arrange to speak to an OT yourself. They will help you achieve your goals in life and conquer the road blocks that are stopping you from succeeding.

Meditation

Do you constantly feel stressed and overwhelmed in your life? You might want to think about meditation. You don’t have to spend hours meditating to see the effects. Instead, you can simply squeeze in a few hours a day. To meditate all you need to do is clear your mind. Try using some relaxing music and setting quietly with your legs crossed and your arms loose by your side. Practice controlled breathing, and you should feel your body calm down. At this point, you will be entering a stage of meditation. When you have finished meditating your mind will feel clearer, and your body might feel stronger too.

Sleep Tight

Of course one of the simplest ways to keep your mind healthy is by getting a good night of rest. You may not realize this, but sleep is the body’s natural way of healing itself. If you’re not getting enough sleep, you will find life more stressful, and you might even see physical changes such as bloating or loss of hair. To get a good night of rest, try switching off all the electrical devices in your room. You can learn why you should do this by reading http://dailymail.co.uk/. Exercise a few hours before bed then lie back and let your body drift naturally to sleep. You should wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and ready for the day.

We hope you see now why it’s important to look after the mind as well as the body when you’re thinking about your health.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

It’s important to understand how the mind impacts the body and how the body affects the mind. There is a link there that you might not be aware of and it could be impacted your health right now. There are many ways how we feel can change our body.

For instance, you might be feeling stressed. Stress can have a variety of causes. For instance, you might be dealing with some difficult deadlines at work. If you feel as though you’re not going to make the deadlines, you might think your career is in jeopardy. If that’s the case, it would be naturally to experience increased levels of stress.

What you might not realize is that this stress will have an effect on your body too. Stress can lead to hair loss, weight gain and even damage to the skin. That’s why if you want to stay healthy, it’s in your best interest to try to stay as calm as possible.

Interestingly, physical actions can impact your levels of stress and the way you feel. For instance, exercise has been shown to reduce tension. This might be because it gives the mind something else to focus on. Or, it could be due to the fact that when you exercise your body releases endorphins that do make you feel better, even for a short time. Here are some of the other relationships between the body and the mind.

You Are What You Eat

These words are truer than you might think because diet does affect mood and how we feel. Chocolate, for instance, is a mood elevator and triggers the same endorphins in the mind that are associated with love.

People with bipolar disorder are even advised to stay away from foods with high levels of sugar. A key piece of bipolar depression info is that people with this condition have highs and lows. You might have noticed a similar effect just after you consume something high in sugar. For a while, you feel happier and then you sink again. You can imagine how difficult this can be for someone whose mood is already affected by a medical condition.

Just Smile

Smiling isn’t just about showing someone else that you’re happy. Research shows that by smiling, you actually increase your own happiness levels, even if you’re not actually feeling that great. You might wonder then how there can be any such thing as smiling depression. Well, the effects of smiling on your own happiness levels are quite minimal and certainly won’t completely alter your mood. However, the impact is strong and clear enough to be noticeable on a brain scan.

Calm Your Mind

This connection is particularly interesting. Studies have shown that Buddhist monks who have spent their lives meditating actually form new pathways in the brain and may increase cognitive intelligence. There is still a lot of research occurring investigating this phenomena, but it certainly points to the possibility that meditation can be good for your health.

We hope you find these connections useful because understanding them could have a definite impact on your life and your level of fitness.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

Getting ill is something that we would all avoid all the time if possible. Though this may be a farfetched fantasy, there are a few lifestyle changes that you can make to boost your immune system. As well as reducing your chances of falling ill; you will then be more likely to fight off any illnesses that do happen to come your way. Here are some natural ways that you can improve your odds of staying healthy.

Reduce Your Stress

Many people seem to be living highly stressful lives these days. This nonstop pace can easily run you down and increase your risk of falling ill. A surge in hormones like cortisol and adrenaline that have been closely linked to stress cause a rise in blood pressure and the heart to beat faster. A huge amount of health problems can be linked directly to stress, so try to take action wherever you can. A common coping mechanism is meditation, which can really help refocus our minds away from the common stresses of everyday life.

Alter Your Diet

Omega-3 fatty acids which are commonly found in salmon, walnuts, and seeds can help to stabilize your mood. Superfruits such as pomegranates and blueberries have been shown to have all sorts of positive health properties. Another thing that is constantly being linked to having a major positive effect on your health is green tea; so consider switching your morning cup of coffee for some of the green stuff. Not getting enough nutrients in your diet decreases your body’s ability to fight off illnesses should they arise.

Supplements and Oils

There are plenty of natural supplements and oils that you can take which can have various effects on the body. There are a whole host of examples on www.healthwatchlist.com which can give you a clearer idea. Ultimately, it is a good idea to do some research online so you get a fuller picture.

Regular Exercise

As with a huge amount of other health advice; it all comes back to regular exercise to make all the difference. Losing weight, building healthier bones and boosting mood are just three of the ways that regular exercise can improve your overall health.

Get A Good Night’s Sleep

The restorative properties of sleep are fairly universally acknowledged, but new research is being done all the time that uncovers new pieces of the puzzle of sleep. When you do get ill, this is when your body does a huge proportion of its recovery. As well as this, getting enough sleep can make all the difference when it comes to reducing stress, which brings us right back to the first point on the list.

What’re Your Thoughts?

Ultimately, getting ill is not something that we can always avoid, but taking a few steps to naturally improve your health is within everyone’s reach. The above points mark a good starting point so try them out to see what a difference they could make to your overall health and wellbeing.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

The answer to that question is yes. Sleep has a very vital role in our lives and is an important requirement for our mental, physical and general well-being. It not only rejuvenates and revitalizes our body but also improves our cognitive functions and strengthens our memory. It affects your life quality plays a very crucial role in life safety.

Your day depends a lot on the quality and duration of your sleep. Your ability to work, feel and behave are all dependent on the quality and duration of your Zzzz’s. Poor sleep quality and sleep deprivation has been linked to an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and suicide(1), depression(2) and anxiety. Continuous sleep deprivation has also been linked to chronic health problems.

Weight Gain

Sleep deprivation or poor sleep quality can affect your satiety centre and cause you to gain weight. You are more likely to overindulge if you are sleep deprived. Getting a proper 8-hour sleep will ensure you take in fewer calories.

Productivity Issues

It is a no brainer that less sleep equals to less productivity. Not only that, sleep deprivation also causes the inability to think, react and concentrate. It affects your mood and mental health severely and may lead to poor decision-making skills.

Higher Risk of Cardiac Diseases

Patients who suffer from sleep apnea often end up having heart problems. When a person does not get the required amount of sleep, the body releases certain chemicals which keep the body from lowering its blood pressure and heart rate. If sleep deprivation becomes a regular thing, high blood pressure during the day becomes common and can easily lead to cardiovascular issues.

Risk of Diabetes

Diabetes occurs when the human body is unable to break down sugar properly. This causes a starvation of your cells for energy since it is not getting energy through glucose. When the quality of your sleep is poor or you are sleep deprived, your body requires more insulin in order to maintain normal glucose levels. Sleep deprivation affects the body’s stress-control centre and causes hormonal imbalances which lead to problems in the regulation of glucose. When sleeplessness becomes a habit, the insulin producing cells stop proper functioning and give rise to elevated blood glucose levels which can cause diabetes. So, that late night chocolate cravings are not to be tended to if you want to continue eating sweet things later on in life!

Depression

Insomnia is a common occurrence among the depressed patients. People who have issues falling asleep, staying asleep or getting quality sleep are at a higher risk of developing depression as compared to those who get quality sleep(3). Sleep apnea has also been observed to cause depression.

Weak Immune System

Lack of sleep or poor sleep quality also weakens the immune system. Hence, sleep deprived individuals are more likely to catch a flu or fever. The human body produces proteins called cytokines that are released by the immune system to promote sleep. When you have an infection or inflammation or are under a lot of stress, some of these cytokines increase. Sleep deprivation causes the production of these cytokines to decrease. It also causes the infection fighting antibodies to decrease in number, thus weakening the human immune system and making the body vulnerable to common diseases.

Emotional Instability

Feeling irritated and emotionally unstable after a sleep deprived night is not uncommon. Recent studies have shown that a sleep deprived mind loses its ability to think rationally. A sleep deprived brain starts exhibiting primitive behaviour and regresses in its ability to think rationally and logically. Hence, the emotions start running amok.

Many psychiatric disorders that involve emotions are related to sleep deprivation. Abnormal patterns of sleep can cause mental instability. A good night’s sleep is very important to maintain a healthy mind and keep your emotions in check. Instead of going for anti-depressants or other drugs, go for a good night’s sleep and this may just be the simplest cure for your emotional and mental behaviour to get back to normal.

Safety!

Sleep deprivation can quite critically affect your life directly too. Sleep deprived individuals are at a higher risk for accidents on the road or at work. There have been many cases of fatal road accidents when sleep deprived individuals dozed off while driving.

The normal adults require a minimum of 8 hours sleep to lead a healthy life. Getting less than 8 hours can contribute to a great deal of physical as well as mental issues. A lot of people are not aware of the dangers of getting less sleep. They may think that they can function properly after getting only a few hours of sleep but if sleep deprivation becomes a habit, it can take its toll on the person’s health and safety in a horrible way. Your body and your immune system depend greatly on sleep. So, change into your Pj’s, turn off the lights and hit the bed for some Zzzz’s so that you can make sure you live a healthy and fuller life.

Living with chronic pain can be so debilitating, and cause untold amounts of physical and psychological strain on sufferers. Any pain that lasts more than six months is chronic, by definition, although it can come in waves, and sufferers may experience good and bad days. It can completely affect how a person lives their life – some people are forced to stop working, stop socializing, and some can’t even make it to the store for groceries. Medical treatments exist to limit the pain, including both prescription and over the counter drugs, but many people find that they are not enough, and have to look to themselves for pain management as well. If you’re a sufferer of chronic pain, or know somebody that is, and would like to know more about how to stop chronic pain from ruling your life, read on.…

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

Investing in high-quality products is advisable for proper skincare, but they won’t do much if you don’t take care of your skin from the inside while minding the importance of physical activity and committing to a beauty routine suitable for your skin. Treating your body as a whole is the key to balanced life; everything you do leaves a mark on your skin so you might as well be proactive about it and pay more attention to your health behavior. Read on to find out some holistic experts tips on beautiful skin.…

Staying fit is important to all of us to a greater or lesser extent. While not everyone goes to the gym or goes running, we all want to be healthy. And while many of us look at a big greasy burger the way a cat looks at a mouse, we know we can’t overindulge. Although obesity statistics are on the up, so is awareness. Note also that the way we record obesity has changed. Here’s how to stay fit when your health gets in the way.…

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.